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A former member of the 9/11 Commission has claimed there is clear evidence employees of the Saudi government provided support to the hijackers who carried out the attacks.

John Lehman, Navy Secretary under President Ronald Reagan, who served on the commission in 2003 and 2004, said the Obama administration should declassify a controversial secret 28-page section of a US congressional report.

There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers and some of those people worked in the Saudi governmentPhilip Shenon

In an interview with author Philip Shenon, published in The Guardian, Mr Lehman said: "There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers and some of those people worked in the Saudi government. Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia."

He claimed the commission was aware of at least five government officials in Saudi Arabia who were strongly suspected of being involved in the hijackers' support network.

He said: "They may not have been indicted but they were certainly implicated. There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence."

Mr Lehman, now a New York investment banker, said he did not believe members of the Saudi leadership or royal family were involved.

Another member of the commission told Mr Shenon: "I think we were tough on the Saudis, but obviously not tough enough. I know some members of the staff felt we went much too easy on the Saudis."

There were said to have been rows behind closed doors as members of the commission's staff objected to the way information about Saudi Arabia was being handled.

In December 2002, a year after the attacks, the House and Senate intelligence committees published a report on the US investigation into the attacks that was considered to largely clear the Saudis of the blame.

But President George W Bush ordered 28 pages of that report be classified to protect the methods and identities of US intelligence sources.

Campaigners have since alleged that it contained information implicating Saudi officials in supporting or funding al-Qaeda.

The issue of alleged Saudi involvement in the attacks has been repeatedly resurfaced amid attempts to allow victims' families to sue Saudi Arabia.

Now, President Barack Obama's administration is considering whether to release the pages and has indicated a decision will be made by June.

Earlier this week Saudi Arabia said it was confident nothing in the 28 pages implicates its leaders.

Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir, speaking in Geneva, said: "Our position since 2002, when this report first came out, was release the pages. We know from other senior US officials that the charges made in the 28 pages do not stand up to scrutiny."